Japan Masters Super 500: Top seeds Satwiksairaj-Chirag Shetty bow out in the opening round | Badminton News

Entering the tournament as the top seeds, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down in three games in the opening round of the Japan Masters Super 500 event in Kumamoto on Tuesday.
Back in action after a break, the Indians struggled for consency as they went down 21-16 18-21 16-21 in 63 minutes against Chinese Taipei’s Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han.
Chirag and Satwik, who had gone up to world No 1 after their Asian Games gold medal in Hangzhou, had recently slipped down to world No 5 mainly because of not being able to defend their points at the French Open where they were defending champions. The Indians came into this match with a 1-0 record against Lu and Yang, having beaten the pair incidentally at the French Open last year.Most Read
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The opening game saw the Indians take a 11-7 lead into the break but their opponents closed the gap down soon after. However, Chirag and Satwik pulled away in the end to take the lead. But it is from the second game that the errors started getting out of control. Satwik was targetted on his left shoulder and the round-the-head shots led to makes from the usually solid 23-year-old. Chirag was targetted with body smashes and he couldn’t exert the same influence from the net as he is used to.
Chirag and Satwik seemed to have recovered enough at the start of the decider when they made it 10-10 but after the change of ends, they couldn’t put together a run and ended up going down in the decider.
On Wednesday, Lakshya Sen will begin his campaign against a familiar foe from the class of 2018 in Kodai Naraoka. HS Prannoy, who won a famous bronze in Hangzhou, is back in action after a break due to his back injury. The India No 1 had missed the European swing. He takes on Lee Cheuk Yiu. Priyanshu Rajawat is also in the fray, he faces Lin Chun Yi of Chinese Taipei. There is no Indian contention in any of the other three disciplines with PV Sindhu and Srikanth Kidambi withdrawing from the event.